Post Traumatic Headache Assessment - Caveats on the History and Physical Exam

Materials

Overview

This session will explore some of the myriad challenges facing clinicians assessing post-traumatic headache (PTHA), including how to take a PTHA history and how to do the “hands-on” physical and neurological assessment of a patient with PTHA. Most clinicians are not familiar with the scope of assessment strategies that should be used to assess the various causes of headache following a brain, head, or neck trauma/injury. Learners will come away from this presentation knowing more about the various kinds of post-traumatic headache and how best to evaluate them so they may better treat our nation’s service members and veterans.

At the conclusion of this educational program, learners will be able to:

Delineate the pre-injury, injury and post-injury aspects of the PTHA history

Recognize the importance of edifying pre-injury headache complaints and family history of same

Review the recommended physical assessment strategies for examining a patient with PTHA, including inspection, auscultation, palpation and special maneuvers (i.e., ligamentous laxity testing)